For Happy and Healthy Children, in Brisas de Primavera II

Our congregation in Piedecucuesta is looking to respond to the needs of local children a start a 'For happy and healthy children' project. The area where we are located is renowned for high rates of internally displaced people by many years of civil conflict.

We are looking to target undernourished children between 0-12 whose development is at risk. This we plan to achieve by running a food distribution programme as well as by workshop sessions aimed at parents. The will cover the issues of good nutrition, healthy development as well as focus on spiritual family life.

In order to find out more during our survey with the community it transpired that majority of households do not think to be affected by under-nourishment and nearly all of them report to be eating three meals a day. However, looking closer at the information given, we can see that some consider glass of milk, juice or a piece of fruit to be a meal. Breakfast tends to be the most neglected meal. This happens more in families with 3 or more children that might go to school hungry. When asked, half the people thought the situation was caused by lack of financial resources, followed by lack of interest of the parents (22%).

That is why our project has both components - direct food distribution and parental engagement and education. You can find out more about the results of our survey below.